Best-Selling Writer E. Lynn Harris Dead At Age 54
This is really sad news. He was a great writer. He created characters that other people would not and he gave them voices that reached across numerous cultural lines. He will be missed.
Friday, July 24, 2009
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4 comments:
I have enjoyed Mr. Harris’ writing for many years. His voice was one that was needed and one that will be missed.
Always felt that much of his work show have made it to cinema, Luther Vandross have alrady done the soundtracks!
RIP.
I can't really be too broken up about this. E.Lynn's character's promulgated the so-called "DL phenomenon". His stories often pathologized men who had sex with men and furthered the stigma black gay men already face within the community.
While EL was certainly classier than JL King, much of his work damaged the already fragile image of black gay men. His work was fiction, yet blacks (and whites)have understood it to be fact. He was elevated to the status of a subject matter expert on all things black and gay, when he was nothing more than a former computer salesman who thought he had a story to tell.
He was no Essex, Audre, Marlon, Bayard, or James.
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